The other day Clara and I were alone in the car singing along to our traditional family Christmas music. She became extra excited about one of our seasonal favorites that came on. It is a song which we talk about occasionally and I oftenpassionately explain to her and her sister, (as well as their captive mother that sits quietly in the passenger seat and pretends to ignore me and read a magazine). As the song came on this time Clara exploded with an idea about how I should play it at the church building and use it to teach a lesson to everyone. Now, I’m sure this makes perfect sense to her, since this is something I do often at home after watching videos or listening to music. However, the song we are talking about is “The Christmas Unicorn”.

For me, this really highlighted the fact that she innocently has no idea how outright strange her family is. Sure, “The Christmas Unicorn” is probably one of the greatest Christmas songs ever written (zero sarcasm), but it is really an acquired taste, as is the case with all good holiday traditions. But it is really too bad that, for better or for worse, she and her siblings will continue to get exclusive access to all of my best sermons and lessons. They just have no context or palate anywhere other than in our little home. I’m sure, if the world only knew the valuable content they were missing they world be eager to hear my essays on “Jesus as found in the cartoon Kipper the Dog”, and “The way you treat your books now, is the way you will treat your family when you are older” and, case in point, “How Sufjan Stevens and the ‘The Christmas Unicorn’ could save America from destroying Christmas, or There is still good in you I have felt it, or Christmas is a very serious Holiday let’s stop ruining it by taking it too seriously”.

I’ll attach a link to “The Christmas Unicorn” for the curious. As a caution, it is over 12 minutes in length. You can get the gist of the song in just 2:30 seconds. After about 5:00 you will really be feeling the Smith family Christmas spirit. And at 6:30 the annual Christmas dance party begins.